A new report concludes that NYC life expectancy from birth is up, and cancer/heart disease-related death has dropped due to campaigns against smoking

A recent report providing health statistics for New York City citizens shows that heart disease deaths have dropped due to campaigns/laws against smoking while the overall life expectancy has risen.

The report, which was announced by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier this week, shows that the life expectancy for newborn babies in New York have a life expectancy of 80.6 years, which is a three-year increase from 2000. The national life expectancy is 78.2 years.

The Health Department provided the report after analyzing death certificates, and found that medical care and preventative measures played a major role in the life expectancy boost.

Now, only 14 of 100 New York citizens smoke, which is a 35 percent decrease since 2002. The Health Department said this drop will prevent 50,000 premature deaths in the coming 40 years.

"It's really impressive, since that's the big killer in middle age and old age," said Dan Seidman, director of smoking-cessation services at Columbia University's behavioral-medicine program.

The report noted that smoking rates among women were cut from 19.8 percent in 2002 to 12.2 percent in 2010. Also, since 2002, the cancer-death rate decreased 4.3 percent from 170.2 deaths per 100,000 people to 162.9 in 2010. Health Department officials attributed this to preventative smoking measures as well.

Bloomberg has spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" of his personal money for public health campaigns including those that promote anti-smoking.

"If you want to live longer and healthier than the average American, come to New York City," said Bloomberg. "By investing in health care and continuing to encourage more New Yorkers to take charge of their own health, we've experienced dramatic improvements in life expectancy."

In addition to heart disease and cancer-related decreases, the report mentioned a 52 percent decrease in HIV-related deaths from 2002 to 2010. From 2009 alone, there was an 11.3 percent decrease. Also, New York citizens are less likely to die from homicide, as there were slightly more than 500 murders this year. This is the third lowest number in the past five decades.

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